political videos | news | blog | links |

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to sell the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, San Quentin State Prison, the Orange County Fairgrounds and other state property to raise cash amid the state’s growing fiscal crisis, according to a copy of a proposal reviewed by The Times.

Sale of the properties, to be included in the governor’s revised budget plan on Thursday, would raise between $600 million and $1 billion, although it would not provide relief to state coffers for two to five years, according to the proposal.

Other items on the list for potential disposal include Cal Expo, site of the state fair in Sacramento; the Del Mar Fairground; the Cow Palace in Daly City; and the Ventura County Fairgrounds. It’s not clear whether lawmakers would be willing to part with the real state the governor has identified. Proposals to sell San Quentin and the Coliseum have not advanced in the Legislature in recent weeks

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scored a victory Thursday over state Controller John Chiang when a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled the governor has authority to implement furloughs and that Chiang must adjust pay accordingly.

The Democratic controller said last week in a legal filing that he sided with state worker unions and would refuse to implement the governor’s furloughs without a court order.

Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette wrote Thursday that the court would in fact provide that order with its ruling. Chiang’s office was unavailable initially Thursday, but if he abides by his statement, he’ll carry out the furloughs.

In Belmont, Calif. it is now illegal to smoke in your own home and, as John Blackstone reports, the new law has angered one woman who’s now on a mission.

In America…

“I’m absolutely outraged,” said Frederickson, 72, pulling on a Winston as she sat on a concrete slab outside her single-room apartment. “They’re telling you how to live and what to do, and they’re doing it right here in America.”(1)

“Just the fact that somebody forces me to do something goes against my grain!” she said.

But Coralin Feierbach of the Belmont City Council says: “She’s gonna have to smoke outside, where everybody else smokes.”

Protecting the Neighbors
Feierbach pushed Belmont’s new law banning smoking inside apartments and condos to protect neighbors. “Overwhelming evidence shows that secondhand smoke is dangerous, even for a few seconds,” Feierbach claims

“This idea that I am killing other people is ridiculous!” Frederickson said. “Prove it!”

So What do You think is going to happen … will the law be enforce or overturn ?

“You are asked now to stand on a question of love. All you need to do is stand and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don’t have to help it. You don’t have to applaud it. You don’t have to fight for it. Just don’t put it out. Just don’t extinguish it. Because while at first it may look like that love is between two people you don’t know and you don’t understand and maybe you don’t even want to know, that love is, in fact, the ember of your love for your fellow person. Just because this is the only world we have and the other guy counts too.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a sharp increase in the state’s sales tax, as well as new taxes on oil drilling and alcoholic drinks to help pay for a budget shortfall of billions of dollars.

Central to his plan would be a sales tax increase of 1 1/2 cents from its current rate of 7.25 percent on the dollar to raise $10.8 billion. Republicans in the state have firmly opposed any tax increases.

Proposed new taxes include an immediate, three-year increase in the sales tax by 1.5 cents on the dollar; broadening sales and use taxes to items such as car repair, golf and veterinary services; a tax on oil extraction in the state; and an increase in alcohol taxes. The temporary increase would push the state portion of the sales tax to 8.75 percent, before any local sales taxes were considered.

A broad range of proposed budget and program cuts would require state workers to take one work day without pay a month and eliminate two state holidays and premium pay for hours worked on other holidays. The governor is also proposing changes to allow state agencies to establish four-day work weeks.

With multiple failed attempts at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, all eyes are on Republicans as they prepare to pass major tax reform measures that would effectively provide a hefty tax cut to the top tax bracket while lowering the corporate tax rate to around 20 percent from 35 percent. As President Donald […]

A hastily written health bill — with deep cuts to Medicaid and major hits to patient regulatory protections — ran into the same political problems as bills before it, and failed to garner enough support in the Senate. Republicans announced Tuesday the party does not have the votes to pass their latest health care bill, […]

Georgetown Law students and faculty gathered on the campus Tuesday to protest a speech by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in which he blasted college campuses that he said have allowed political correctness to erode free speech. The school did not allow many of the students and faculty at Tuesday’s protest to attend the invite-only speech. […]

In a town hall event Monday night, the former presidential candidate took issue with Trump’s priorities as he devoted more attention to protesting athletes than to the condition of millions on Puerto Rico.